The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria could clear the way for ISIS to regain territory in six to 12 months in their attempts to rebuild a caliphate, according to a Pentagon draft report.
According to NBC News, the report directly contracts the words of President Donald Trump and some of his aides, that ISIS is all but defeated.
“We assess that ISIS will seek to exploit Sunni grievances, societal instability, and stretched security forces to regain territory in Iraq and Syria in the long term,” the report says. “ISIS still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria, and it maintains eight branches, more than a dozen networks, and thousands of dispersed supporters around the world, despite significant leadership and territorial losses.”
“The group will exploit any reduction in CT pressure to strengthen its clandestine presence and accelerate rebuilding key capabilities, such as media production and external operations,” the report continues. “ISIS very likely will continue to pursue external attacks from Iraq and Syria against regional and Western adversaries, including the United States.”
DNI Dan Coats said much the same on Tuesday during the assessment threat presented to Congress, that ISIS “still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria.” Trump reacted angrily to the testimony and spent Wednesday denouncing his intelligence chiefs.
Paging Democratic candidates: Don’t fall for the Trump isolationist spin. It’s all coming from Russia to serve Russian interests. America’s intervention in Syria has been very successful to date. For a relatively small investment of troops, Obama essentially squashed ISIS. Mattis continued that policy, but Trump is about to throw it all away. People like Elizabeth Warren have essentially agreed with Trump’s policy (just not his approach). This is an area where I’d like to see Chuck and Nancy lead the party. We need to control ISIS and we need to get American foreign policy engaged at stabilizing Syria, protecting the Kurds, and moving towards a political settlement that diminishes Assad’s power.
Time to dust of the “Mission: Accomplished” banner.
Whatever happened to “We’re fighting them over there so we won’t have to fight them here”?
I’m afraid that all the research, scholarly application, and on-the-ground intelligence gathering that put agent’s lives in danger, mean nothing when put next to the towering ego of 45* .
Trump is a walking, talking operational definition of the terms “incompetent”, “treacherous”, and “corrupt”. I fear that if we survive his presidency, it will take decades of solid political leadership to recover our ability to promote and protect our national interests. That assumes that we effectively address the root causes of Trumpism.